Shaastra, IIT Madras’s annual technical festival celebrates the spirit of engineering. It is a meeting ground for some of the finest young technical minds of India with over 800 colleges from all across the country taking part. And for those with an inkling for numbers, there’s Rs. 10 lakh up for grabs. This year the event is being held from October 3 to 7. 

Apart from featuring video conferences with Nobel Laureates John Cromwell Mather (2006 for Physics) and Harold Kroto (1996 for Chemistry) and lectures with other imminent scientists like Dr NK Karmakar, and Dr Thamban Meloth of the Indian Antarctic mission, the spotlight of Shaastra will be on events like Yu Fly wherein VTOL crafts will be made, the setting up of a Jatropha oil-run Bio-Diesel plant and the Ultimate Engineer which will test not just one’s theoretical, but one’s practical knowledge too.

Shaastra 2007’s design events will ask of you, simple solutions to problems faced in the industry as part of the Industry Defined Problems.

Shaastra has prided itself in its very strong Robotics culture and it’s no different this time. One gets to demonstrate the latest security and espionage driven robots, as well as overhead gantry cranes! For all you know, the winner of the Mission Mars competition maybe the prototype of the next robot to walk its surface. The hands-on events at Shaastra have always been a big draw. This year apart from the regulars - Contraptions, Junkyard Wars and Project X - one gets to study medieval military engineering in the Art of War. You will also be tested on your reflexes and quick thinking in The Quick Fix. The vast variety of coding contests and online events leaves a lot of cash at stake, apart from the thrill of matching one’s wits against another’s in events such as AI Wars and Online Hacking contests.

Quizzing at IIT Madras is a separate subculture to itself and the two quizzes at Shaastra- How Things Work, and the Shaastra Main Quiz are among, if not the most prestigious in the country.

Apart from these, Shaastra 2007 has events that will test your Math Modelling and Simulation skills. The most innovative and feasible business plans in Breakthrough 2007 will be awarded. A workshop on entrepreneurship is also being organised at Shaastra.

There will also be workshops on Advanced Materials, Open source, Radio Circuitry, Bio-Engineering and a most interesting one on the Rubik’s cube. However one of the highlights of this year’s edition of Shaastra is the Chandrayaan workshop. This workshop, through guest lectures and panel discussions will aim to show  how this mission will provide answers about the moon that previous missions have not been able to. It is a matter of national pride and it’s only fitting that Shaastra 2007 be able to feature it.

For any clarifications and all the details about the events, the problem statements and rules and regulations, visit www.shaastra.org .